Ladies and Gentleman, to use a lost colloquialism, the final presentation of the Eratics 1979-2019 EP .. Now we can totter off to the old punks knackers yard, from whence we sprang, where the speed grows on acid trees and toothless bunny girls spray smack, tcp and mothballs onto crowds of bald spikey tops. Punk rock gave me piles! But what's a little discomfort compared to the Marquee club in Wardour Street on a loud n sweaty night? Jeez, we couldn't even spell 'ERATICS' back then nor even guess that it means a 'loose boulder'.. Did Thatcher really put all those downers on the streets back in 79/80 to take us out? Damn well nearly worked in my case! In these days of convenience, with a spy cam in everyone's pocket, You have to order your tickets months in advance, if you can even get one! Back then we made discoveries every week, a quid on the door, 50p a beer and three blues a pound. Bunk the tube back to Seven Sisters for the last train, no ticket. On the way vault the barriers at Oxford Circus tube. Bondage got a snare drum, invented hardcore drumming! Squatted the old Church on Pentonville road, it's still there, forgotten its name but it's not a church any more. Not even god wanted it back then, the gigs there were great fun! Someone brought along big rolls of crepe paper which ended up like pink spiders webs all over the joint. Did we play with Crass? I can't remember but Conflict and Flux and Rubella and the mob and the subhumans, Apostles, supported Chelsea at that very marquee club and kept getting asked if I got the gig by offering my ass, NO for the last time! D+V Dave and Julie, MVD, Tom Vague (his holiness), Hope N anchor, Greyhound, pubs all over, and Italy Bologna Jumpy and Laura, half the band came home half dressed, the other half got stuck behind with the luggage, the magic bus, the spare driver got left behind in the Alps when he foolishly went for a pee, now that was funny! Pickled Onions being thrown, the Gay Butchers with Hagar the womb on Holloway road, I wanted to do their entire set, wanted to be them! There's elephants! Dan running up the platform as the train pulled out going to Amsterdam, did he turn up late at the new Merlins cave on the back of an open truck playing his kit? Or is that my imagination? Blood N Roses, flowers in the dustbin, Brigandage, Alien sex fiend. Turning up to Hammersmith covered in paint 'are you the decorators?' asked the landlord 'no, we're the fucking band mate, we always look like this!' Snout getting tied to a chair whilst sleeping at the peace centre in Roseberry avenue, He always managed to get to work next day, it was strange.. He worked! Interviews in the squat in Milne st; where nonsense descended over anarchist political issues. Nights in Amhurst Rd. Jim N Harry turning up for y'know, and Dean Tis ah 'get yer shirt off!' The Triad and the Newtown Neurotics gave us a gig but we blew it big time, I spent more time at the bar than playing my bass when we were on, Mick and Anarchy, Pat and all the others, Stringy walks on Guinness and the big punch up in the playhouse in Harlow. Ambition and confidence Vs Money and resources. Those that came to see us, not mentioned by name but neither nameless, faces remembered. Take the 73 bus it'll drop you anywhere your heart desires. Square pegs in round holes, youth eternal, a catapult to send one flying through life. In the end those solitary loose boulders they call ERATICS though what we intended was 'unstable' were quite a good metaphor, that's kinda how I think of it all now, a hill strewn with loose boulders created by some mega blast or ice sheet way back when. I dunno if they'll be another anniversary, 50 years, perhaps, perhaps not, maybe it's time to end it here. When you play with the same band all your life time it’s a funny thing. Kinda like the gang at school stayed the gang at school forever. But it's not. We melt into other lives and realities, we're not really the eratics any more, it was like a first car, you know what I mean (humour me).. Bard Buster? They are! Look Mummy Clowns, The twins, Clare, Asa, Steve, Cathy Mr Blue Mohican, yeah you! Max, Bunny, Tom, Mole, Our Karen and my Pat. I am marking time, marking what was, bringing it back for a moment into the now before it vanishes again and maybe for good. Nostalgia, yeah why not, sometimes, not all the time.. The sun sets on my east Asian island, it's the same sun as back home, cos I am a son of distant clouds, but I suffer less runny noses now! Eratic hordes go garrity 1979-2019 Cheers Stringy
